Shiv Sethuraman's latest venture: The New Business

Close to six months after his exit from Cheil as group president, South West Asia, Shiv Sethuraman today announced the launch of his venture 'The New Business'

ETBrandEquity

Updated: July 17, 2017, 11:31 IST

The New Business is designed to be a first-of-its-kind services company. From “creating a new business culture” within an organization to end-to-end handling of an Agency’s pitch, it’s mission is to help Agencies of all disciplines and sizes maximize their ROI on new business acquisition.

Speaking about the thinking behind The New Business Shiv Sethuraman said, ”Despite new business being a priority for the management in every Agency, many of them struggle with their acquisition efforts. The reasons differ from one Agency to another but common themes include resource bandwidth issues, insufficient pitch experience, lack of rigorous project management and poor ownership within the Agency teams. Winning on a sustained basis requires more than just intent. At one level it needs the creation of a “winning culture” and equally, on the ground, it requires clear acquisition strategies, military-style project management, world-class pitch decks and excellent presentation. Over the last two decades I have led Agencies and teams that have won prestigious global pitches such as Louis Vuitton and Abbott (Digital) as well as local ones for adidas (Retail and Digital), Nissan and Jet Airways (Digital) among many, many others. Every Agency I have lead over the last decade has had an outstanding new business track record. It is the learning and experience from these along with my passion for business acquisition that forms the bedrock of The New Business.”

“Winning new business is mission critical for all Agencies today but at the same time they need to effectively manage costs. New business is expensive and a distraction from day to day operations. Many of them can ill afford expensive and underutilised full time new business resources or indeed freelancers who have little stake in outcomes. It is our intent to provide, over time, a suite of products that make The New Business the preferred destination for Agencies when its comes to client acquisition. ”